AS English notes Raida 12D
Theories
> Gender theories
Deborah Tannen- Difference theory
There are a series of contrasts in the way that males and females
communicate
1. Status VS Support
According to Tannen, men grow up in a world where communication is
competitive and therefore strive to ensure that others don’t dominate them
Women strive to use communication as a means to gain support and
confirmation instead of status
2. Independence VS Intimacy
Tannen claims that due to the fact that men are concerned with status, they
focus more on independence
Women on the other hand think in terms of intimacy, seeking support and
closeness from their partner
3. Advice VS Feelings
Men exchange information briefly, for example in a telephone conversation to
arrange a meeting
However, women will spend an hour on the telephone talking about feelings
and emotions
4. Orders VS Proposals
Tannen claims that men make orders by using more direct imperatives whilst
women suggest things in more indirect ways
5. Conflict VS Compromise
Whilst men are more likely to voice their opposition to a suggestion in the
workplace/home, according to Tannen, women are less likely to object and
assert themselves
They might delay their opposition to the suggestions and complain later
Zimmerman and West - Dominance theory
The dominance theory is that men are more likely to interrupt than women
when engaged in mixed-sex conversation
They discovered that in same-sex conversations, interruptions were
distributed fairly evenly among the speakers
In the cross-sex conversations, however, men were responsible for 96% of the
interruptions
Child acquisition theories
David Crystal - 5 stages of language
1. Stage one
this is where children say things for 3 purposes:
1. to get something they want
2. To get someone’s attention
, 3. To draw attention to something
then they begin to make basic statements
Being naming things with single words and then move on to relating objects
with other things, people and places
They also relate objects with events
At this early stage they don’t have much vocabulary so they use information
to ask a question
This stage is holophrastic
2. Stage two
this is when children usually ask questions, ‘where’ questions come first
their questions often begin with interrogative pronouns (what, where)
followed by a noun or verb such as ‘where gone?’
Children become concerned with naming and classifying things by frequently
asking ‘Wassat?’
They may also begin to talk about the characteristics of things, for example:
big/small
Children are taught to learn things in opposite pairs such as up/down and
hot/cold
3. Stage three:
By now children would be asking lots of different questions but often
signalling that they are questions with intonation alone
Children soon begin to express more complex wants by using more
grammatically correct language
Verbs such as ‘listen’ and ‘know’ are also used
Children refer to events in the past and less often in the future tense
They usually talk about continuing action
The basic sentence structure has expanded
4. Stage four
This is when children use increasingly complex sentence structure to begin to:
Explain things
Ask for explanations using the word: ‘why?’
Making a wide range of requests: ‘ shall I do it?’
Now they are able to use complex sentence structure they have flexible
language tools for expressing a wide range of meanings
As well as saying what they mean they now have pragmatic understanding
and suit their utterances to context or situation
Children also use negation (denial/contradiction)
They don’t rely on intonation and signals anymore as they explain more fully
They are now able to use auxiliary verbs and may duplicate modal verbs
5. Stage five
By this stage, children regularly use language to do all the things that they
need it for
They give information, asking and answering questions, requesting directly
and indirectly, suggesting, offering, stating and expressing
Theories
> Gender theories
Deborah Tannen- Difference theory
There are a series of contrasts in the way that males and females
communicate
1. Status VS Support
According to Tannen, men grow up in a world where communication is
competitive and therefore strive to ensure that others don’t dominate them
Women strive to use communication as a means to gain support and
confirmation instead of status
2. Independence VS Intimacy
Tannen claims that due to the fact that men are concerned with status, they
focus more on independence
Women on the other hand think in terms of intimacy, seeking support and
closeness from their partner
3. Advice VS Feelings
Men exchange information briefly, for example in a telephone conversation to
arrange a meeting
However, women will spend an hour on the telephone talking about feelings
and emotions
4. Orders VS Proposals
Tannen claims that men make orders by using more direct imperatives whilst
women suggest things in more indirect ways
5. Conflict VS Compromise
Whilst men are more likely to voice their opposition to a suggestion in the
workplace/home, according to Tannen, women are less likely to object and
assert themselves
They might delay their opposition to the suggestions and complain later
Zimmerman and West - Dominance theory
The dominance theory is that men are more likely to interrupt than women
when engaged in mixed-sex conversation
They discovered that in same-sex conversations, interruptions were
distributed fairly evenly among the speakers
In the cross-sex conversations, however, men were responsible for 96% of the
interruptions
Child acquisition theories
David Crystal - 5 stages of language
1. Stage one
this is where children say things for 3 purposes:
1. to get something they want
2. To get someone’s attention
, 3. To draw attention to something
then they begin to make basic statements
Being naming things with single words and then move on to relating objects
with other things, people and places
They also relate objects with events
At this early stage they don’t have much vocabulary so they use information
to ask a question
This stage is holophrastic
2. Stage two
this is when children usually ask questions, ‘where’ questions come first
their questions often begin with interrogative pronouns (what, where)
followed by a noun or verb such as ‘where gone?’
Children become concerned with naming and classifying things by frequently
asking ‘Wassat?’
They may also begin to talk about the characteristics of things, for example:
big/small
Children are taught to learn things in opposite pairs such as up/down and
hot/cold
3. Stage three:
By now children would be asking lots of different questions but often
signalling that they are questions with intonation alone
Children soon begin to express more complex wants by using more
grammatically correct language
Verbs such as ‘listen’ and ‘know’ are also used
Children refer to events in the past and less often in the future tense
They usually talk about continuing action
The basic sentence structure has expanded
4. Stage four
This is when children use increasingly complex sentence structure to begin to:
Explain things
Ask for explanations using the word: ‘why?’
Making a wide range of requests: ‘ shall I do it?’
Now they are able to use complex sentence structure they have flexible
language tools for expressing a wide range of meanings
As well as saying what they mean they now have pragmatic understanding
and suit their utterances to context or situation
Children also use negation (denial/contradiction)
They don’t rely on intonation and signals anymore as they explain more fully
They are now able to use auxiliary verbs and may duplicate modal verbs
5. Stage five
By this stage, children regularly use language to do all the things that they
need it for
They give information, asking and answering questions, requesting directly
and indirectly, suggesting, offering, stating and expressing
